Thirty three athletes from Herts Phoenix Athletics Club made the trip across town to compete in the second fixture of the Metropolitan Cross Country League season at Ealing. For the first time in recent memory there were no individual or team victories but still plenty of good performances to be proud of.

 

Harriet Kealy (9th) backed up an excellent run at Claybury last month with another top 10 finish in the senior women race. Harriet paced the sticky and undulating 7.8km course perfectly, holding off a late challenge to cross the line in 30 minutes 17 seconds. Deborah Rushman (56th) arrived just in time for the start of the race and, without a warm up, not surprisingly struggled to find her usual racing rhythm. Sisters Grace (75th) and Eleanor Mason (127th) scored valuable points for the women’s team, who despite being two athletes short, finished 13th in division 1 on the day.

 

Caleb O’ Neil (19th) relished taking the role of lead athlete in the senior men’s team and was hot on the heels of the race leaders before fading late on. Chris Jones (258th) ran a solid debut race and it was pleasing to see Martin O Neil (342nd) back in action after a long lay off. A reasonably healthy squad of 11 athletes ensured the men finished a respectable 9th place in division 2 on the day.

 

It was again pleasing to see a sizable team competing in the Junior Men’s competition where Ben Murphy (3rd) backed up a fine run in the National Relays the previous week with his best ever finish in the league. Matias Benveniste (12th), also a member of the successful team at Mansfield, wasn’t far behind  with fellow Wodson Park group members Sean Mazur (21st) and Jake Summers (35th ) ensuring another top 3 finish for the boys team.